Kevin Feige & Tilda Swinton On The Gender Of The Ancient One In ‘Doctor Strange’

When it was first announced that Academy Award-winning actress Tilda Swinton would portray the Ancient One in Marvel’s Doctor Strange, many fans were left wondering whether or not the studio was going to change the gender of the character, since the master of the the Sorcerer Supreme has always been depicted as an Asian Man. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige had this to say about the character’s gender:

“We’re never afraid to change, in the comic books, Jarvis is an elderly butler. In the movies, he’s an A.I. system which becomes Paul Bettany’s Vision. We are always looking for ways to change. I think if you look at some of the early incarnations of the Ancient One in the comics, they are what we would consider today to be quite, sort of, stereotypical. They don’t hold up to what would work today. Also, within the storyline of the comics, and our movie, ‘the Ancient One’ is a title that many people have had. We hit very early on on, What if the Ancient One was a woman? What if the title had been passed and the current Ancient One is a woman? Oh, that’s an interesting idea. [Clicks fingers.] Tilda Swinton! Whoah! And it just hit.”

So by the sounds of things, Swinton will portray the character as a woman, or maybe not? The actress has previously portrayed a male character in Francis Lawrence’s Constantine, so we shouldn’t really rule out the possibility of a gender-swap. Here’s what Feige had to say about that:

“Look, she’s a chameleon in everything she does, She has this amazing [ability to] harness of this androgynous sense. So, we use the term ‘her’ and ‘she’ in the film but, other than that, it’s very androgynous. Because it doesn’t matter.”

The magazine also had a chance to chat with Swinton herself. While the actress wouldn’t reveal the gender of the character, she did say the following: “I wouldn’t know how to answer that one. I think it’s all in the eye of the beholder.” What do you guys think? Sound-off your thoughts in the comment section below.